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You know about Extreme Programming, Agile cooperation, and continuous improvement, but did you know you can apply these to UI design? I'll show you how to make your end users happy all the time by applying what you already know about software development to the design and implementation of user interfaces. More and more, developers are being called upon to create user interfaces without designers. Extreme UI Design: The User is Always Right will show you how to use your well-honed programming skills to build measurably effective front ends.

It's all about usability, the software equivalent of flossing; you know you should do it, yet sometimes there just isn't time. For developers, there often isn't money to hire a designer. In tough times, developers who can design become essential, but most software engineers are schooled in algorithms and compilers and rarely in the intricacies of user interaction. This book is for all of you who find yourselves working on the front lines of software development and want to create an application that respects the maxim that all users are right.

• Discover best UI design practices for software engineers.
• Maximize usability right in your code with a few simple tools.
• Write software that works for the user!

What you'll learn

• Distinguish usability myth from reality
• Give users both what they want and what they need (these aren't the same)
• Use your application prototypes as test beds for usability
• Apply rigorous heuristics to measuring UI effectiveness
• See why CRAP is important to creating good interfaces
• Identify and avoid common UI anti-patterns

Who is this book for?

Looking to get an edge in today's workplace? Worried about being downsized? As companies look to cut expenses, the developer who can do more has a better chance of survival. If the UI team gets the axe, can you step in and help run a usability test or whack out a paper-based prototype? After reading this book, you'll be more valuable to your software development organization, you'll have a more complete toolbox, and you'll create applications that don't make your users yack .

This book is primarily aimed at software developers who are tasked with front-end development. Considering that almost all software has some kind of interface, it should appeal to a large audience. Depending on how the book is slanted, it should also interest the agile community.

After introducing the basics of the AWT library, the author looks at simple painting and 2-D graphics. Standout sections here look at displaying images--a staple of Internet programming--as well as transforming images with "filters" (such as dimming and rescaling an image). Graphic Java 1.2 shows you a variety of advanced techniques for getting control of your bit-mapped content. The tour of Java graphics capabilities moves on with coverage of layout managers and basic AWT components such as buttons, text fields, lists, and choices. For those who want to create stand-alone Java applications, there's much material on using Java menus.

The book's advanced material highlights new features of JDK 1.2, such as its support for lightweight controls, built-in double-buffering support, and advanced "native-style" operations (such as clipboard support and "rubber-banding" classes). The author also shows off his custom classes for 2-D sprite animation. --Richard Dragan

In many ways, Graphic Java 2 is a cookbook. You search the table of contents or index for a reference to the kind of problem you want to solve, then examine the author's examples for the solution (or at least some clues to it). This is the book to turn to if you're wondering how to implement the JComboBox.KeySelectionManager interface (which enables users to select items in a combo box) or compare the various ways of making the JTree component into a file browser. Those are just two of hundreds of examples in David Geary's book.

While most examples don't serve any practical purpose by themselves, they do clearly illustrate how a specific aspect of Swing works. It's easy to adapt the details presented here into your own programs. Geary shows consideration for the reader by presenting all his examples as programs that can be compiled and including them on the enclosed CD-ROM. --David Wall

This core professional compendium breaks down into three main sections. The first presents the basic XML standards, Java APIs and programming tools for handling XML. The second part presents a selection of Java techniques which make up the building blocks for XML-based applications. The section is Java-centric, and presents the common scenarios for XML data I/O, building on the basic tools presented in part one. The final and largest section of the book shows how XML applications can be built on top of the techniques shown in part two, and demonstrates how XML can be used to solve real programming problems.

If you want a hefty box of XML manipulation tools at your disposal and would like to discover how the language could be used in your Java applications, then this book is for you.

Besides a useful guide to APIs, the book looks at a variety of techniques for saving session state, as well as showing how Servlets can work together to power Web sites. You will learn performance tips and ways to get Servlets to work together (like forwarding and redirection), plus the basics of database programming with JDBC, to build content with "live" data. A later chapter examines what's next for Servlets with the emerging Servlet 2.3 API standard. Importantly, the authors go over deploying and configuring Web applications by editing XML files, a must-have for successfully running Servlets in real applications.

Since the first edition of this title, the choices for Java Web developers have grown much richer. Many of the new chapters in this edition look at options beyond Servlets. Short sections on application frameworks such as Tea, WebMacro, the Element Construction Set (ECS), XMLC, and JavaServer Pages (JSP) let you explore what's out there for Java developers today with a survey of some current tools that can speed up creating new Web applications.

The text closes with reference sections on Servlet APIs (and other material) that will be useful for any working developer. Although Servlets are not the only game in town, they are still important tools for successful Web development. This updated edition shows you just how to do it with plenty of basic and advanced tips for taking full advantage of this powerful Java standard. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Overview and history of Java Servlets
• Fundamentals of HTTP
• Web applications (including deployment and configuration using XML files)
• The Servlet lifecycle (initializing, processing requests, cleanup, and caching)
• Multimedia content (images and compressed content)
• WAP and WML for wireless content
• Servlet session tracking techniques (hidden form fields, cookies, and URL rewriting)
• Security issues with Servlets (including certificates and SSL)
• Tutorial for JDBC and Java database programming
• Using applets and Servlets together
• Servlet collaboration
• Quick introduction to Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)
• Internationalization issues
• Survey of third-party Servlet application frameworks and tools: Tea, WebMacro, the Element Contruction Set (ECS), XMLC, and JavaServer Pages (JSP)
• Miscellaneous tips for Servlets (including sending e-mail and using regular expressions)
• Description of the new Servlet 2.3 API spec
• Servlet API quick reference

There are any number of good introductory texts on JavaServer Pages. This title distinguishes itself with techniques recommended by Sun for building better Web applications. Backed up by the author's own collection of custom tag libraries, which allow ordinary Web designers to program with tags instead of Java code, this text covers all the bases from getting started with tags to more advanced techniques. Early examples of tag libraries include a variety of ways to validate data in HTML forms. Throughout, the book deftly describes installing tag libraries, and shows how HTML designers can use custom tags after Java developers have created them.

Readers also get best practices for JSP and Beans, which is a big plus. Author David Geary presents both Model 1 and Model 2 architectures. (In Model 1, JavaBeans are used to present data to front-end JSPs. In Model 2, a more sophisticated set of Java classes using the Model-View-Controller design pattern allows even greater flexibility.) Sample code for using JSP and JavaBeans for internationalized code (including French, German, and Chinese) will show you how to take your Web application to worldwide markets. The book concludes with a working case study of an online fruit stand (using several languages) and applies the techniques presented earlier on.

All in all, with its mix of practical advice and some very useful techniques for getting the most out of JSP and Java for Web applications, Advanced JavaServer Pages fills a valuable niche for any serious Java developer who wants to see some of the best ways to create Web applications today. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Custom tag tutorial (including JSP and TLD files)
• The tag life cycle
• Tag attributes
• Tag classes
• Body tag handlers
• Scripting variables
• Nested tags
• HTML forms and JavaBeans
• Validating form data with Beans and custom tags
• Templates and custom tags for defining regions within Web pages
• Model 1 and Model 2 basics
• Sample classes and tags for Model 2 framework (including samples for managing logins)
• Event handling
• Sensitive form resubmissions
• Internationalization techniques (including resource bundles and locales)
• Security issues (including basic, digest, form-based, and SSL authentication)
• Custom tags for JDBC database programming
• Database connection pooling, XML, and JavaBeans
• The Simple API for XML (SAX)
• The Document Object Model (DOM) and custom tags for these APIs
• XSLT and XML
• Case study for an internationalized online fruit stand
• Appendix on Servlet filters and the Servlet 2.3 specification

This book aims to teach you how to use these two powerful technologies to build successful Java database applications. You will find out how relational databases work and how you can use them in your Java programs, through the JDBC interface. You will see how to apply your new skills in an enterprise environment and by the end will be building sophisticated web-enabled Java database applications that incorporate other technologies, such as XML.

This book covers:

Using the JDBC API to build database-driven Java applications
Introduction to new JDBC 3.0 features
SQL and relational database design
Object-relational mapping frameworks and techniques
Debugging your application and logging its activities
Applying Java and JDBC skills in a J2EE environment
Integrating XML into you Java database applications

Java can provide functionality that PL/SQL cannot. We exploit Java's capabilities for accessing system resources outside the database - such as operating system commands and network sockets. We also make use of powerful Java Utilities for messaging and generating graphics. For example, we develop an application whereby a pie chart image is generated from a query, and then automatically distributed to interested parties (using JavaMail) Java can be used to smoothly complement the programming capability of PL/SQL. An example here would be the use of PL/SQL packages to handle complex data types and schedule tasks in the database, in conjunction with the file transfer (FTP) or compression capabilities of Java.

The book is divided into four sections:

Section I is a fast-paced Java tutorial for PL/SQL programmers
Section II covers database access with JDBC and SQLJ and shows how to smoothly and correctly convert between Java and native SQL data types
Section III is the real heart of the book, where what has been learned is applied to practical problem solving with Java and PL/SQL
Section IV takes a detailed look at performance issues. Having considered Java application tuning and SQL tuning separately, we take a detailed look behind the scenes of Java database access and try to illustrate how you should choose between Java and PL/SQL for database operations

The tendency for any book on software patterns is to dissolve into software engineering jargon, and you'd expect this title to do the same given the abstract names for many patterns listed in its early sections (for example, "Intercepting Filter," "View Helper," and "Service-to-Worker" are hardly catchy names). While the authors do provide the "official" UML and pattern descriptions for these J2EE patterns, the real surprise is that they use a handful of longer case studies to show off each pattern in action. First there is a hotel booking application to show off Web tier patterns. Next comes an excellent case study on persistence patterns used to simplify working with EJBs and databases. Patterns for improving performance and scalability are illustrated with a travel booking application.

In each case, the authors manage to introduce a number of important patterns while anchoring their presentation with a practical and interesting discussion of real applications. This approach makes this title succeed on several levels, both in presenting essential patterns and demonstrating how these designs often work together in real Web solutions.

The end result is a text on software patterns that provides some of the best thinking on J2EE design today in a remarkably readable and engaging format. In all, this title will be absolutely required reading for anyone who lays claim to be an expert on today's J2EE platform. --Richard Dragan

Dynamic Publishing with ColfdFusion MX is brought to you by the leader in dynamic publishing implementation and a supporting cast of highly skilled contributors. Examples are based in a real-world application, addresses the interaction of three key roles in dynamic publishing: developer, architect, and technical manager.

With the upcoming release of ColdFusion MX, new functionalities will allow greater use of dynamically populated content fields on web sites. This book assumes that readers have a basic knowledge of the technology and language of ColdFusion and focuses on implementing that technology in a real-world context. Where technological updates need to be provided, the author has included them. But he goes beyond the tool-based information to provide concrete guidance on the challenges of dynamic publishing and how to solve them. The solutions required to implement the technology effectively rely on developers, architects, and technical managers understanding the issues and working on them in tandem. Dynamic Publishing with ColdFusion MX will prepare them to work together to release the dynamic content-based web sites that the marketplace is calling for. It is the focus on implementation and solutions and the teams involved in the process that makes this book different from other books expected to be on the market.

Macromedia ColdFusion MX didn't just get a paint job, it got a complete system overhaul. If you're looking for a book to help you get up-to-speed on Macromedia's powerful server scripting environment, Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion MX Application Development will help you understand the technologies and techniques used to create advanced Macromedia ColdFusion MX applications. You'll learn about:

• Using clustering and fail-over technologies to ensure server uptime
• Using the new archive and restore features
• Creating secure applications, and integrating with existing security systems
• Extending Cold Fusion using COM/DCOM, CORBA, and the Cold Fusion C and Delphi API's
• Leveraging the underlying Java sub-system
• Using JSP tags, EJB's, and other Java components
• Using and publishing Web services

This clear, straightforward guide uses examples to demonstrate specific techniques and case studies to illustrate real-world examples of specific topics. Written by Macromedia experts, this advanced guide to Macromedia ColdFusion MX offers straight-from-the source training that you won't find anywhere else.

Java developers typically go through four "stages" in mastering Java. In the first stage, they learn the language itself. In the second stage, they study the APIs. In the third stage, they become proficient in the environment. It is in the fourth stage --"the expert stage"-- where things really get interesting, and Java Enterprise Best Practices is the tangible compendium of experience that developers need to breeze through this fourth and final stage of Enterprise Java mastery.Crammed with tips and tricks, Java Enterprise Best Practices distills years of solid experience from eleven experts in the J2EE environment into a practical, to-the-point guide to J2EE.Java Enterprise Best Practices gives developers the unvarnished, expert-tested advice that the man pages don't provide--what areas of the APIs should be used frequently (and which are better avoided); elegant solutions to problems you face that other developers have already discovered; what things you should always do, what things you should consider doing, and what things you should never do--even if the documentation says it's ok.Until Java Enterprise Best Practices, Java developers in the fourth stage of mastery relied on the advice of a loose-knit community of fellow developers, time-consuming online searches for examples or suggestions for the immediate problem they faced, and tedious trial-and-error. But Java has grown to include a huge number of APIs, classes, and methods. Now it is simply too large for even the most intrepid developer to know it all. The need for a written compendium of J2EE Best Practices has never been greater.Java Enterprise Best Practices focuses on the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) APIs. The J2EE APIs include such alphabet soup acronyms as EJB, JDBC, RMI, XML, and JMX.

Open source software has changed all of this. There are now several freely available Java development frameworks that can be used for developing web applications. These frameworks are straightforward to use, and because you have ready access to the frameworks' source code, they are also easy to customize for any organization's environment.

This book acts as a roadmap that will demonstrate how to use Jakarta development frameworks to solve everyday web application development challenges. Using our unique Problem-Design-Solution approach we will explore how the development frameworks from the Jakarta project, such as Struts, Velocity, Lucene, Cactus, and ObjectRelationalBridge can be used to develop web applications.

For each problem, the books discusses the solution's design and then how to implement it using the relevant framework. The problem domains covered include: Navigation, Screen layout, Form Validation, Business Rules, and Persistence.

The syntax guide is clear and concise, with brief statements of what operators, data structures, and syntax elements are for. There also are examples (both generic and with illustrative data) in this section. The API reference is organized by namespace (System, System.Collections, System.Reflection, System.Xml, and so on), with each section containing an alphabetical list of members. Each listing includes syntax guides to the element's constructors, methods, and properties, as well as a hierarchy statement and lists of other classes from which instances of the current member is returned and to which it is passed. Don't look for examples in the API reference, but the author's prose statements of what classes are for should help you along the way to a working application. --David Wall

Topics covered: The key System namespaces of the C# programming language and their most important members, covered in API reference format. Sections deal with (among others) System, System.Collections, System.Net, System.Net.Sockets, System.Runtime.Interopservices, and System.Xml. There's also a syntax guide and references to regular expressions and data marshaling in the C# language.

Simpler, faster, easier dynamic website development based on new additions to an established and proven technologythat's what JavaServer Pages (JSP) 2.0 is all about. Pro JSP, Third Edition is the most comprehensive guide and reference to JSP 2.0 yet. It equips you with the tools, techniques, and understanding you need to develop web applications with JSP and Java servlets.

The features of the JSP 2.0 and Servlet 2.4 specifications make developing web applications easier than ever before. JSP Expression Language (EL) provides a simple language for creating JSP pages and tags. In addition, by also using the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL), you'll never have to use a Java scriptlet or write spaghetti code again.

Beyond covering the JSP and Servlet APIs, this book shows you how to choose and implement the best persistence option for your web applications; how to secure your web sites against malicious attack and accidental misuse; how to improve the performance and scalability of your JSP pages; and how to architect and design your applications to be reliable, stable, and maintainable through the use of design patterns and best practices.

Finally, no JSP book would be complete today without looking at the role that open source projects such as Ant, Struts, XDoclet, JUnit, and Cactus can play in making your web development even easier.

"With this book, Ted Neward helps you make the leap from being a good Java enterprise developer to a great developer!"
—John Crupi, Sun Distinguished Engineer coauthor, Core J2EE Patterns

If you want to build better Java enterprise applications and work more efficiently, look no further. Inside, you will find an accessible guide to the nuances of Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) development. Learn how to:

• Use in-process or local storage to avoid the network, see item 44
• Set lower isolation levels for better transactional throughput, see item 35
• Use Web services for open integration, see item 22
• Consider your lookup carefully, see item 16
• Pre-generate content to minimize processing, see item 55
• Utilize role-based authorization, see item 63
• Be robust in the face of failure, see item 7
• Employ independent JREs for side-by-side versioning, see item 69

Ted Neward provides you with 75 easily digestible tips that will help you master J2EE development on a systemic and architectural level. His panoramic look at the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of J2EE development will address your most pressing concerns. Learn how to design your enterprise systems so they adapt to future demands. Improve the efficiency of your code without compromising its correctness. Discover how to implement sophisticated functionality that is not directly supported by the language or platform. After reading Effective Enterprise Java , you will know how to design and implement better, more scalable enterprise-scope Java software systems.

Proving once and for all that standards-compliant design does not equal dull design, this inspiring tome uses examples from the landmark CSS Zen Garden site as the foundation for discussions on how to create beautiful, progressive CSS-based Web sites. By using the Zen Garden sites as examples of how CSS design techniques and approaches can be applied to specific Web challenges, authors Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag provide an eye-opening look at the range of design methods made possible by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). By the time you've finished perusing the volume, you'll have a new understanding of the graphically rich, fully accessible sites that CSS design facilitates. In sections on design, layout, imagery, typography, effects, and themes, Dave and Molly take you through every phase of the design process--from striking a sensible balance between text and graphics to creating eye-popping special effects (no scripting required).

Like most complex tasks, .NET programming is fraught with potential costly, and time-consuming hazards. The millions of Microsoft developers worldwide who create applications for the .NET platform can attest to that. Thankfully there's now a book that shows you how to avoid such costly and time-consuming mistakes. It's called .NET Gotchas.The ultimate guide for efficient, pain-free coding, .NET Gotchas from O'Reilly contains 75 common .NET programming pitfalls--and advice on how to work around them. It will help you steer away from those mistakes that cause application performance problems, or so taint code that it just doesn't work right.The book is organized into nine chapters, each focusing on those features and constructs of the .NET platform that consistently baffle developers. Within each chapter are several "gotchas," with detailed examples, discussions, and guidelines for avoiding them. No doubt about it, when applied, these concise presentations of best practices will help you lead a more productive, stress-free existence.What's more, because code examples are written in both VB.NET and C#, .NET Gotchas is of interest to more than 75 percent of the growing numbers of .NET programmers. So if you're a .NET developer who's mired in the trenches and yearning for a better way, this book is most definitely for you.

*Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) is most up to date at time of book’s release; AOP is a hot topic right now.

*Will be endorsed by Open Source Spring Framework founder and head, Rod Johnson (plus a Foreward, name on cover, and/or possible Spring logo).

* Ajax works across many platforms and different groups of developers – this book is designed to be suitable for all those developers across all those platforms, who are interested in the hot new topic of Ajax.

* Demand for Ajax knowledge will be strong. Leading technology companies like Google, Yahoo, Adaptive Path, and Amazon are adopting Ajax techniques, and many other companies are doing the same in order to compete with Ajax. This book connect the developer community to the new Ajax functionality.